Hunts Point market eyes NJ

The Hunts Point wholesale produce market, a 1 million-square-foot market in the South Bronx that employs 3,000 people and sells to restaurants and grocery markets throughout the metropolitan area, could move to New Jersey when its lease expires in May, the Wall Street Journal reported. The facility is already too crowded, according to merchants and customers, and a new warehouse is needed. The cooperative market estimates a new facility would cost $320 million in New York — much more than it would in New Jersey, the journal reported. The city and the cooperative heads are struggling over the financing for a new facility, and the cooperative is seeking a lower rent. If those can’t be accomplished at the current location, Stephen Katzman, co-president of the Hunts Point market, said the market will look to move to a site within 10 miles of the George Washington Bridge and Lincoln Tunnel, preferably in Newark or near the Meadowlands. New Jersey, meanwhile, is making efforts to land the market. “New Jersey offers some tremendous incentives, tax incentives, payroll tax incentives,” he said. “But if we move to New Jersey the worry is, will [the customers] follow?” [WSJ]